This is a site where I post reviews of CDs, DVDs, LPs, and concerts. I have been writing music reviews on and off since 1984. I ran a heavy metal fanzine from 1984-1988 called Metal Madness and have been a staff writer for Aural Innovations for many years. I have also contributed to Chrohinga Well (RIP), Bad Acid (RIP), Lowcut (RIP), Roadburn and a number of other zines as well. I recently moved to Portugal so please request the new address and do not send any music to Denmark anymore. Tak..

Sunday, October 2, 2016

Autumn of Pækward- Cern (Tonzonen Records TON014)

German label, Tonzonen are back with another cool
release. This is a sound project of
Leipzig based artist Jochen Koch. His
main inspiration for the project was the Sci Fi works of Luc Beregeaux. This album
features 6 tracks. There are 200 black, 300 clear vinyl and a special edition
(only 50) with a bag, sticker, poster and autographed photo. Canteen starts
things off with some strange sounds and then drones from space and then a
female voice enters and takes center stage as the soundscapes grow and and grow
with the flow of the synth drones (bass and space sounds). Wardrobe has these
deep space keyboard sounds that are almost like voices and then some beats of
sort that are repeated in patterns. Very ethereal. A spoken word comes in and
talks about the super collider. Now I have a better understanding of the album
title and what is written on the back of the sleeve as well!! At the end of the
track there is some backwards stuff and some sort of distorted sounds fade in.
Directors Office is the last track on side A. This is mainly a drone track with
some sounds buzzing about here and there and later an organ comes into the
picture.. Another spoken word piece that is sort of masked and difficult to
understand plays over the top as well. At the end of the track a nice guitar
solo and real drums come in for a min or two. That was a surprise. Trippy
stuff. I like it.

Side B is also three tracks. Cupboard (See video below) starts things off with
the sounds of the roadside and some static and other noises as the pure organs
and synths start to invade the soundscape. It feels like something bad is going
to happen but then a more happy organ changes the mood after some very brief
spoken sample.Attic sees the return of
the guitar which plays a pretty repetitive riff as the new age vocal synth
drones come and go until the guitar is nearly alone and then the drums come on.
A very happy dreamy piece but then a sort of death metal vocal just completely
freaked me out. Shit what just happened??? Collider, the last track is a
strange mixture of a lot of stuff and piano, waves of sounds, clarity, noise,
distortion, disorientation… In a way that is what this record is about. A trip
around the theme of the collider… you don’t know what you will get when you
smash a lot of ions, music and things together but one might sound like
this!!!!

About Me

I am a research scientist doing Diabetes research and I do music journalism on the side and have been writing about music for 28 years now. I also lead an all improvised psychedelic space rock band called the Øresund Space Collective. I also am an avid collector of music.